Donald W. Hamer Center for Maps and Geospatial Information

1 Central Pattee
University Park, PA 16802

(814) 863-0094

Topographic Maps

Introduction

"Topographic maps provide a detailed representation of the natural and man-made features of the earth's surface. The main characteristic of such maps is the representation of the three-dimensional terrain (or relief) of the surface of the earth by the use of contour lines." - Geokov

National Geographic has built an easy to use web interface that allows anyone to quickly find any quad in the country for downloading and printing. Each quad has been pre-processed to print on a standard home, letter size printer. These are the same quads that were printed by USGS for decades on 22 x 27 inch paper but are now available in multi-page PDFs that can be printed just about anywhere. They are pre-packaged using the standard 7.5 minute, 1:24,000 base but with some twists:

Zoom into your area of interest or use the search box to look for a Quad. Click on the red pointers and then double click on the image in the pop up box to download the multi-page PDF

Page 1 is an overview map showing the Quad in context

Pages 2 through 5 are the standard USGS Quads cut in quarters to fit on standard printers